#imagine thinking ‘fundamental change’ means ‘they have to completely change their opinion’

[labyrynth]

salt abt Specific anti :)

imagine actually thinking this. and thinking that’s not only correct, but a GOOD THING

#salt is salt #like noah fence but just say you think she’s a terrible writer and go #bc this is just painful to watch #‘none of her protagonists learn and change and that’s a GOOD thing!!!’ #the only one here not learning and changing is you darling :) #smh imagine thinking a character has to do a 180 to still fundamentally change #and making this claim when arguably they all develop in the same way?? #reconciling their desire to make a difference with the fact that they’re just one person #and acknowledging that helping even just one person is still worthwhile #if they didn’t fundamentally change as people then uhhh we would be back at square one #imagine thinking ‘fundamental change’ means ‘they have to completely change their opinion’ #bro are you flaunting the fact that you didn’t make past elementary school analysis #lol

[microcomets]

can i ask for your thoughts on the netflix atla adaption? 👉👈 value ur opinion on media

aw, thank you!!! i admit i'm only halfway through watching s1, so my opinions may change as i reach the end of the season, but i can outline some of my thoughts so far!

pros:

overall, with a few exceptions, i think the casting so far is really solid. the asian and indigenous representation within the show is something they clearly took very seriously, and it shows! especially for a netflix show, that's something really groundbreaking and important and refreshing to see; and obviously a huge improvement on past whitewashed adaptations. overall, i think most of the effects are good, despite some weird cinematography choices — there are a handful of moments where the CGI looks particularly egregious, but overall, the bending and choreo look COOL. the opening scene of the pilot had me by the throat, even as it made very clear what a different kind of adaptation this would be. overall, i tend not to be too fussy about an adaptation altering things from originals to make more sense in different formats (with caveats, as i'll mention in the cons lol), so i wasn't mad about the way they've fused some of the storylines to make it flow better in a 60-minute format. (although i do question bringing in s2 stories so early, such as the secret tunnel.) there have been some moments where they've either built out character relationships (like zuko and iroh) or brought in supplementary canon from korra and the comics, which i have also enjoyed as a huge fan of the original. there are a few additions that i've really loved and had fun with — zuko's dream journal, for one, lmao, and his and aang's street fight in omashu.

cons:

honestly, my biggest gripe so far has been the alterations to characterization and character motivation. the cast and crew were sort of smugly talking about removing misogyny from the original and "updating" it, which is ironic because i think the live action is actually more sexist in many ways.

my BIGGEST disappointment has been katara, with no shade to the actor. this is one of the characters who means the most to me from the original, and the character that has hands-down been the least recognizable in natla. her fire, her temper, her unruliness, and her bossiness — all to say, her human traits — have been completely sanitized, presumably to avoid drawing any kind of criticism that she's "annoying." her anger is quite literally what kickstarts the entire show: katara losing her temper with sokka cracks open the iceberg that releases aang. katara's anger is, in a lot of ways, an outlet not only for her sense of injustice in the world, but also an outlet for coping with 1) immense colonial trauma and 2) the burden of being parentified. this, in my view, is IMPORTANT for young girls and particularly young girls of color to see — that anger doesn't have to be something you shy away from, but that you can embrace as a weapon of resistance. this anger is missing entirely, except in small snatches, from natla katara. the moments that make katara a flawed, interesting character — such as her stealing the waterbending scroll and getting jealous of aang's natural prowess — have been scrubbed completely. it is nearly impossible, at this point, to imagine this version of katara bloodbending or taking vengeance for her mother in s3. i think the re-characterization is a big misstep, due more to poor writing than anything. even the agency of katara's bending is "unlocked" and coached by male characters like aang (ep 1) and jet (ep 3), when katara is supposed to be the one teaching aang!

the inversion of sokka and katara's relationship — that is to say, parentifying sokka and making katara more of a "little sister" figure — is also a huge misstep IMO, because it misses a lot of the characterization fundamental to katara's arcs in the original, and even her later conflicts with other characters like toph. in s3 in the original, sokka says when he pictures his mother, he can only picture katara's face — this is, again, a central aspect to their dynamic and to katara's character! my guess is that they removed katara's overmothering qualities to avoid accusations of being anti-feminist, but ironically, by not acknowledging that in-text the way the original does, it bakes misogyny unspokenly into the atla world rather than explicitly acknowledging and challenging it. to clarify again, i have NOT seen the end of the season yet — i am curious what they do with katara's confrontation with paku, which is one of the biggest grapplings with misogyny in the original text. but for me, removing katara's motherly qualities/parentification, and above all her unsavory traits, are not accomplishing anti-sexist work the way the writers think they're doing, but rather sanitizing the original's social commentary on gender altogether.

one of my biggest squicks thus far has been suki and sokka's relationship; i saw suki's characterization described by someone here as a farmer girl p*rn trope where a naive village waif looks to a man to show her the outside world, or w/e, and i hate that this is what they did to suki's character. they keep her warrior qualities, yes, but this is undercut for me by the cringe comphet romance tropes of making her a wide-eyed blushing virgin around sokka. the insta-romance in the original makes more sense to me, obviously because of the format, but because in the span of 20 minutes, suki has taught sokka what it is to respect and reevaluate his relationship with women and femininity. the writers bragged about removing this from the natla representation, so what we have now is that suki doesn't really teach sokka anything substantial about himself, other than some moves. rather, it's sokka teaching suki about what it is to be "worldly" and how to unlock carnal desires. tbh, i hate that! lol! but that's just my onion.

zuko has been one of the strongest and most well-acted characterizations by far, but i do have a gripe with how they shifted his primary motivation from regaining his honor to reclaiming the throne. zuko at his essence has never been a power-hungry character. his entire drive, as we are told exhaustively through both the show and memes of the original, is regaining his honor — which is also an important cultural trope for many japanese warrior characters (though others not me can speak far more in-depth to this). his search for lost honor is incredibly important, if not central, to his entire character arc, which is zuko discovering that his honor does not come by acknowledgement from his abusive family or even imperial power, but through his own integrity and ethical code. so to have him make several lines about rightfully regaining what's his, the throne, and to make that the primary point of contention between him and azula.....is a misunderstanding, again, of the crucial aspects of zuko's character.

my other nitpicks with the characters are smaller — i miss sokka's slapstick, which has been substituted with very dry humor (and i understand this makes more sense for live action). i am still on the fence about how i feel about making ozai and azula such central characters in s1; i understand why they felt this was necessary for live action, but having those two be shadow figures in the original s1 was a really cool narrative effect for not only establishing zuko initially as a villain within his own right, but for building narrative suspense as to the fire nation's motivations.

ultimately, there's just some secret x ingredient that's missing from the live action that the original nailed effortlessly — maybe it's the sense of fun and wonder? i haven't really had fun watching this adaptation; i'm more just spectating, like watching some pretty fireworks before i move on with my day. my opinion may change slightly, as i hear the show is stronger in the second half; i wouldn't even say it's a BAD adaptation, but overall i feel like it's just kinda....meh, and i still question why it needs to exist in the first place when there are some things that animation as a medium just does far better.

also i just want to point out that i find it extremely frustrating that this show leans very hard into showing the atrocities and Moral Evil of genocide in literally the first 20 minutes of episode 1 and that while netflix wants the virtue-signaling brownie points for that, they'll still continue to give giant paychecks and platforms to brazen zionists. because after this dies down, the stranger things promo cycle is going to start up.

#anonymous #asks

[genderkoolaid]

Transunity just seems so stupid??? Cause like, why am I siding with people who are gonna call me “zippertits” and “theyfab” lmao I’m not gonna side with those people and invite them to fight with me bc, if they can even wait, the second we end general transphobia (or significantly reduce it) they’re just gonna turn on us. Lmao no thanks

I imagine you're the same anon who's sent asks to @quark-nova?

Your anger and wariness is completely understandable. Having spaces that are just people who share your experiences can be really good, and you deserve to have that. I know being around other transmascs and sharing experiences has often been wonderful for me.

But there are transmascs who deny transmasc-specific oppression. I've had to deal with more of them than I have transfems who deny transmasc-specific oppression, although that's just my experience. There are transfems who I agree with and relate to more on the subjects of trans oppression than many transmascs- there's no identity group that guarantees total understanding or safety. That's why I don't see value in transmasc separatism; any sort of ideology that prizes isolation, in my opinion, is going to fall into abuse and toxicity issues, by encouraging people to focus on identity as a sign of safety instead of behavior. I'm not saying you identify as a separatist, but the way you've worded this ask certainly make me think you have similar opinions.

Transunity, as a movement, has been built on the idea that doing exactly what you describe is not okay and is actively harmful to trans liberation. That doesn't mean its perfect or that people who align themselves with it will never hurt you or another trans person, but I can't imagine the same people who use transphobic slurs at other trans people will be the people you find the most involved in transunity.

All in all, do what's best for you. Its horrific that you've had such awful experiences within your own community that you don't feel safe in it anymore. But to me, its clear that your experiences have led you to believe that the majority of other trans people are that cruel and have no sense of family or community with transmascs, and that just isn't true. I don't believe that a significant amount of other trans people would turn on transmascs, especially after transphobia is significantly reduced- I see this kind of inter-community violence as a direct result of transphobia, and fixing that violence is a key part of unworking transphobia itself. The values of transunity aren't ones that brush this kind of thing under the rug, it was created as a direct response to it. I have faith that the people involved will take that seriously, and would not expect you to engage with a trans person who is actively abusive to you for the sake of transunity. Conflict can be an important tool for positive change, and that includes taking seriously intra-community violence and not treating it as acceptable or ignorable "for the greater good". Transunity that demands you be silent or accepting of violence done to you by other trans people is failing on a fundamental level.

I wish the best for you, anon.

#m. #ask box #transunity

[piolhyna]

https://www.tumblr.com/piolhyna/736259264133431296/unpopular-opinion-specially-in-the-aleksander-fan

Just admit you don’t like the character at all. What you just described was a complete rewrite of the character from the ground up in an insanely unrealistic way! If you don’t like him that’s fine, but stop acting like “what really needs to happen is-“ and then create an entirely different character

What dO yOU mEan?!?! 😭If I didn't like the character I wouldn't be writting metas about him and reblogging many posts and other creators?? 😭 I'm not getting paid for liking a character 🤣

I knew it was an unpopular opinion lol, but to go as far as to say what I propose is unrealistic and insane?? It's just a fic idea that I would like to see developed!

Wanting a character to be developed doesn't mean that I don't like the character how it already is, anon. Imagine that characters are toys okay? Metaphorically, I have already bought the doll. Now I want to play with it and give it a makeover! I don't think I'm changing what the Darkling is fundamentally! I'm just giving him a fresh coat of paint. But I like the doll pre and post makeover.

Also, saying that something is unrealistic in a fantasy setting is an inherently flawed argument. The author is God in a fantasy setting, as long as the themes and the vibes are preserved, the author can turn the world upside down if they so like it. Instead of thinking that "the Darkling is unrealistic that he would end up like that", how about we think about what needs to happen so the character ends in that situation organically?

Conclusion, anon: Believe it or not, I like the Darkling. I love the Darkling. I just have a different take on how his story could be developed.

#thank you anon for making me laugh #don't be sad or angry okay? it was a good thought experiment #shadow and bone #darklina #the darkling #aleksander morozova

[linklethehistorian]

So while working on a drawing WIP of mine, I was watching a video from Drew Gooden on the Avatar Netflix adaption (note: I have never seen Avatar: the Last Airbender, and I don’t particularly plan to, either; I am just a fan of Drew Gooden’s videos and I like to learn about various series I will probably never and honestly have no desire to directly, personally interact with), and I think that he perfectly summed up in very short terms what I mean when I say that the Fifteen anime and manga are both poor adaptions of the original story.

[Transcript: “Now, before I continue getting mad about every single aspect of this show, I do wanna answer a more general question of like, ‘what should we expect out of an adaption?’ — because it may sound like I’m trying to say that this should have been a one-to-one recreation of the original show, when that is not the case.”

“You can, and should, be able to change things; why even bother spending all this money to make something that looks worse, if it’s going to be exactly the same? But, those changes need to enhance the story; they can’t be at odds with the spirit of the show, or fundamentally change a character.” /end Transcript]

While I still need to finish my article on Fifteen and its anime adaption, and later better address the manga, this is the point I want to hammer home to people who refuse to get the position I am coming from:

I am not saying that either the manga or the anime would be bad in and of themselves if they were wholly original stories, or that there is anything inherently wrong with adding content that was not in the original source material.

I am saying that they are bad at being adaptions; they are bad at representing the pre-existing story they are supposed to be telling in a new medium. While they could be perfectly fine and serviceable — if, in my opinion, far less compelling — stories if they were original content with no previous source material to adapt from, they are not that, and that is what makes them bad. They are horrible representations of the story they are trying to tell, and for an adaption there can be no greater failing than this.

The biggest changes that were made to both the anime and the manga do not enhance the story.

They do not fit the spirit of the source material.

The anime fundamentally changes a major character and re-writes an entire scene and major plot points in order to allow them to have an excuse for a few seconds of cheap fanservice for a popular pairing/character — which could have still been had in an even better way without mutilation in a different scene they actively decided to remove in order to save time that they completely squandered anyway.

The manga in certain crucial chapters takes visual creative liberties that do not at all fit the spirit, tone, or descriptions within the source material in order to play up a horror aspect that very simply was not intended to exist in the first place, and in doing so fundamentally alters important characterization, along with unnecessary and tone-altering tweaks to a few choice lines of dialogue.

An adaption should be just that: an adaption, not a re-imagining, not a re-telling, not a re-make; its job is to tell the story and elevate it as much as possible using the unique perks of the specific medium it is being brought into. For both anime and manga, this should have been done through the use of visuals (and in the case of the anime, movement, music, and voice acting) to bring the scenes described within the original source material to life and fill in the blanks based on the rest of the picture painted there, as well as expand on certain points and add to them using the spirit of the original story.

Both the anime and the manga have times when they prove that they can do such things quite well and quite efficiently, but then utterly fail to do at some of the points where it matters the very most, and that is why it can’t and shouldn’t be forgiven.

It is not a matter of not being one-to-one with the original with every scene, it is a matter of completely ignoring the most fundamental and important aspects of some of the very most crucial ones of those scenes in favor of “doing its own thing”, even if it means completely ignoring the points the original source material — and the adaption most closely worked on by the original creator (the stage plays) — tried to make.

#linklethehistorian #my thoughts #thoughts #bungou stray dogs #bsd #bsd novels #fifteen #bsd anime #bsd stage play #fifteen manga #fifteen stage play #season 3 #bsd arthur rimbaud #randou #I know I’m talking to a wall but seriously people need to realize that adaptions are supposed to be adaptions #and that the moment it fails to be that yes it is in fact a bad adaption no matter how much you enjoy it as its own thing #you can enjoy it as its own thing if you must and still understand and acknowledge that it is a bad adaption #an adaption that does not adapt a story to a new medium but rather changes it in unnecessary ways that do not elevate the original is #not an adaption #but a failure of one #as at that point it has become a complete reimagining #and reimaginings are not bad….but they are if that was not what they were supposed to be doing in the first place #and if they aren’t upfront about the fact that it is NOT the same story but only borrows parts of it

[nebulouscoffee]

what do you think about the upcoming starfleet academy & section 31 shows?

i feel like while there may be some interesting angles to explore, i really don't want star trek to go down a route of having like too many shows to keep up with & they should've let discovery have more seasons before all this

I completely agree with you! I do like some interconnectedness in my Trek shows, but I'm not a big fan of this general MCU-fication they've got going on. Tbh they announced the Section 31 show years ago and I thought it was a boring idea even then lmao, my opinion hasn't really changed- and I'm personally not very interested in the Starfleet Academy idea either, though I'll keep an open mind. (I think I'm just fundamentally not that interested in Starfleet itself? Like to me it's always just been a means to get my blorbos into space haha)

On top of that, New Trek shows take this weirdly... idk, uncritical? approach to concepts like "Dark and Badasse™️ intelligence agency that needs to exist so that peaceful life can go on" (I feel like Trek very much walked backwards with this, like compare that TNG ep from 1992 where Picard says "torture doesn't work as a way to get information" to that one ep of Enterprise where Archer... tortures someone and gets information. Or that TNG ep from 1991 where the word "terrorist" got thrown around Starfleet admin so much they ended up backing a colonial power, and Picard calls them out on their xenophobia & gullibility and literally violates his orders to protect the Bajorans to ST:Picard where the terrorist conspiracies turn out to be real BOTH times & Picard himself is suddenly uncritically defensive of the Federation. It's a regression imo!) I like New Trek but sometimes it makes me feel like I'm watching Starfleet propaganda😂

I also think you're sooo right about how they should've given Discovery more seasons. And I haven't watched Prodigy yet, but same there! Like imagine if, instead of letting DS9 and VOY complete their runs, they'd cancelled both on like S2 or 3 and then greenlit a whole bunch of other short-lived series & straight-to-DVD 2000s movies instead. It's a bit like that!

#rare moment of me being negative about new trek on this blog #I'm not a hater #but this stuff is still Very Much There lol #ask game #tysm for asking!! <3

[jellogram]

I used to have a thing about locking doors, where I could never convince myself that they were actually locked. When I was with my ex, I had him check the doors for me. If he told me they were locked after one check, I believed it more than if I'd checked it 15 times myself. And after we broke up, this habit got really bad and I'd check the doors over and over again every night like a routine. Get up, check the locks, brush your teeth, check the locks, use the toilet, check the locks, go to bed, get up, check the locks, go back to bed, get up again, repeat. I could see the locked door in my mind's eye but I didn't trust that memory, so I had to check again. And again. And again.

But the thing is, after a couple years separated from my ex, I don't do this anymore. I no longer doubt my perception that the door was locked the first time I checked it. I check it once and go to bed and any time I think "Wait, was the door actually locked?" I remember that I checked it, and I'm fine.

I didn't know what gaslighting was when we were together, and he never brought up the locked doors, or did anything to encourage the idea that my memory of locking it was false. But it didn't matter. Because all day, every day for years, every time I expressed anything, no matter how important or understandable, I was told that I was crazy and I was imagining things and I was being too emotional and I should simply go with whatever he wanted. I was too weak and unstable to make decisions and my needs were a nuisance, which meant I was a nuisance, which meant I was lucky to have someone who tolerated me and could help me see the truth.

What I'm getting at is that gaslighting doesn't just change your perception of the specific things you've been gaslit about. It warps your entire understanding of your reality. It completely degrades your ability to witness things and record them in your mind as fact. And that's such a basic fundamental of how humans operate in the world. You need to be able to see things and remember them and trust your memories, but when you're in the fog of gaslighting, you entirely cede that process to someone else.

And when that person is gone, you keep their views in your mind. I'm crazy, I can't be trusted, but [Ex] told me how to feel about this kind of thing, so that's probably correct. You keep leaning on their opinions because the part of your brain that can make your own has atrophied. That doesn't mean you still LIKE that person or even respect them. You might have even realized how badly you were gaslit by them. But you can't just flatten those grooves in your mind immediately. Your entire self image is based around what they've told you about yourself and you can't rebuild that overnight.

But you can eventually. You get better at silencing their voice. You do something they told you that you were incapable of doing, and you realize they were wrong. They were wrong about so, so much. And slowly, that part of your brain that learns how to make decisions and trust your gut gets stronger and stronger.

And I don't think my ex's voice will ever fade completely. It's still there, sometimes. But I don't trust it anymore. It's not the infallible word of God that it used to be. I see it for what it is — the pleading of a sad, scared little boy who had to break me down in order to stay in his tiny, tiny, comfort zone.

And I am so much tougher than him.

#this has been on my mind a while it's good to get it out as an essay #tw gaslighting #tw abuse

[aspiringminimalist]

(Dis)comfort is Key

Uncommon Opinion: Discomfort is really important to have in your life.

I have been on the road non-stop since September 19, interacting regularly with cultures and personalities that are unfamiliar to me. I have experienced many personal failures, committed many social faux pas, and have endured a lot of stress—but, I have also learned a lot in these 10 weeks, about myself and the way that I want to interact with the world, and acknowledge that I still have a lot more learning to do and possibly some penance still to pay.

As Americans we are always striving for comfort. We have air conditioners and turn our heaters on at the first sign of autumn. We change sheets when they get rips, and throw out clothes when they get stains. We don’t go out of our way, and what would be a minor inconvenience in other countries is a complete outrage to us (see: necessary road construction). We are not used to adapting, we are used to buying what we need to keep the status quo so we don’t have to adapt. I fundamentally disagree with this ideal, and am completely guilty of upholding it. There will be some changes made.

I think about discomfort a lot when I work with families because largely I work for families who can pay me what I deserve (thank you all for blessing me!), which means that their children, typically, want for nothing. Growing up in a different tax bracket, I am amazed by how little discomfort children in middle(+)-class America experience, and it makes me think about the lessons I learned as a child that still stay with me today—and the ones that I have tried to buy my way out of it, that have made me a worse person. Largely ones that involve being satisfied with less (though there are other beautiful lessons that stem from discomfort, like the value of a hard day’s work, or the power of imagination in the absence of distraction).

Sitting with discomfort is one of the most important lessons I can ever recommend for a parent to instill in their child… When kids enter my care, or enroll in my programs, I never believe it is my responsibility to make their lives easier, but it is my job to make our time more fun, enriching, and positive than it would be otherwise. Sometimes that involves letting kids sit with discomfort. And when they sit with it, they learn so much about their own personal power, limits, and the context of their discomfort in a wider perspective. Even as young as 1 years old! I was doing this with Baby Remy before he could even walk or talk! Parents are often really scared to let their children feel discomfort, fear that they might confuse it as lack of empathy, lack of support. But as long as the rapport is already strong, there is no chance for confusion, there is only the potential for self-growth.

Anyway, I’ve been trying to claw my way out of discomfort for literal years. But this trip has been a good reminder that discomfort is a lesson. Discomfort is an opportunity. Discomfort is the beginning of growth. Here’s to discomfort, and all the clarity it may bring…

#minimalism #less is more #comfort #america #cultural divide #simple living #simplicity #health #mental health #raising children #parenting #child development

[impeccablebackside]

Weird thought but do you think the movie and stage Queens would have sex with their counterparts? Like Vic and 2019 Vic having fun? Or thats strange? They're different enough I think

This is an interesting ask anon, so thanks for it. The weird thoughts usually make for good questions in all fairness.

I suppose there are two ways to regard this, the first being if the queens both know that the other is them in spirit and the second would obviously be if they are not aware and someone just so happens to have the same name as them (if names are even shared).

It is a bit of strange premise anon, I am not going to really disagree with that. Though strange does necessarily not mean bad. In general, how would it be considered if you are having sex with someone who is technically yourself? I suppose it would be weird to say that I think it is less 'extreme' than something incestuous, but who knows.

There are a lot of points that come to mind with it when considering the similarities and differences that align with both queens. You are right, I would say that the greater significance of the stage queens differ to a large degree from their movie portrayals. At least enough that it would be hard to say that many are really the same fundamental character when it comes down to it. Not in a negative sense, more from the perspective that the movie changed characters and basically made a non-replica / alternate universe of sorts.

Reagardless, I do admittedly have a bit of a hard time imagining something like this taking place, particularly if they know the other queen is in fact them. Given the interconnectedness of the different realms and spirituality built into parts of the musical, I think either queen would consider their counterpart an extension of themselves, just reborn into another life. In the vast majority of cases, it would end there in my opinion. Even from the perspective that they do not initially realize they are the 'same' queen, sharing a name would be another issue. That is clearly a hard thing to avoid, and it would set off figurative alarm bells in either queen's mind. No matter how many cats could be around, it would be very unusual to meet another cat with a name as unique as Rumple or Tanto for example. It would likely hinder anything further because they would figure out quickly that the other cat is them in some way. Rather than banging one out, I think they would have much more pertinent topics to discuss and share first as to why a second form of them suddenly materialized.

Anyway, for the purpose of this answer we are focusing on the premise that neither queen knows the other is them and that names are not brought up or important. Essentially the other queen is completely separate and remains that way in any sense.

If 2019 Vic and stage Vic were to meet, I do not think they would end up fucking for a long time (if at all) after the initial introduction. They are both shyer and more reserved queens that would probably share a deep friendship rather than any physical intimacy. They could easily be ballet partners / friends that support the other in such a sweet and personal way. Beyond that, neither of them are the other's type. Stage Vic likes the quiet strength / care of her mans and the boundless energy of Rumple, and 2019 Vic does not strongly possess either of those attributes. Alternately, movie Vic needs someone to chase / woo her, and it is not so much stage Vic's style. It would be a spontaneous and likely one-off thing if anything happened.

If they were aware they are the same, I think they would elated to hear about the other's life and the friendship would grow to be more like one of siblings(?).

For Rumple, I think it would be pretty quick before they are fucking in the bushes somewhere. 2019 Rumple is very forward and sultry, yet fun and exciting. Stage Rumple would eat that type of girl up (quite literally) as soon as she could, as that kind of energy from a queen aside from herself is dearly missing in the junkyard. On the other hand, movie Rumple would be smitten with the fun little queen that has the nicest ass she has even seen. Likely initiated by 2019 Rumple, they would get up to some mutually agreed upon shenanigans before getting distracted and ending up in a competition as to who can make the other cum faster.

Out of all the queens, if both were actually aware that the other was indeed them from another world, I do think they would still fuck. It is like the craziest masturbation possible, and they would be into that. Life is about having fun with little regard for rules, so what if that other hot queen is them in a way? May as well indulge a bit. Makes for a good story.

For Tanto, I think it could go either way. The tasteful distilling amd amplification of stage Tanto's more fun and outgoing side into her stage counterpart would make 2019 Tanto strangely alluring to the reserved queen. However, I would not think stage Tanto would catch her other spirit's attention easily to be honest. If they were to talk and get along, it could build, but I would not see a sexual relationship starting out quickly at all. If it did blossom, they would definitely share a intense passion with one another. Though, I think 2019 Tanto is too male leaning for it to be destined. Plus, she would be keener to explore with a more 'softer' queen akin to someone like Vic.

If they were aware that they were intertwined manifestations of the same existence, I do think stage Tanto would still be interested in exploring intimacy from a perspective of testing pleasure and spiritual energies in a completely irreproducible way that would come as her fucking herself but not herself. Movie Tanto would not agree to it though.

Stage Cass would be intrigued by the sassy / bossy nature of 2019 Cass, and that would elicit some desire from her. Movie Cass would be intimidated by her stage counterpart at first, but get on board with making a pass at the other brown queen. Meeting with a glint in their eyes, I think their sex would be a power struggle of them figuratively and literally wrestling the other be the top / domme. (Un)fortunately for 2019 Cass, she is not going to win that fight.

If either found out about 'truth' behind the other, I think they would have a laugh at making the universe more powerful with a second Cass. Rather than come together, I think they would both share tips on how to flex their control over others.

With Bomba, the stage queen would be put off by the negative aura of self-importance and 'big' attitude exhibited by 2019 Bomba. It would be a pretty big turn off for her. The movie version would be flirty with the (actually) red queen, but it would be a one-sided interest.

They would not fuck if they discovered they are both the Bombas of their world. Confusion more than anything would stem from it.

The stage and movie version of Deme are so different that I cannot see them hooking up or really even having much of any communication or relationship if they were in the same physical realm. Their personalities and essence are too dissimilar, and their preferences in partners is not close at all. Add to that, that stage Deme is not really all that female leaning as well. It would not really work.

Finding out they are the same individual would not change that, but stage Deme would be happy to hear that somewhere existed her spirit that lived without so much past traumas.

Stage Jenny would scoff at how aloof her movie version is. I do not think they would get along well, and would develop a fierce rivalry of sorts about who is best at baking, tending the mice, and training the cockroaches. Even burning competition would not open any sort of deeply fostered lust for the other in either of them.

Making them aware they are both Gumbie would make a bit of a merger of their rivalry into a iron-fisted rule over the junkyard. There would not be a piece of trash out of place, but 2019 Jenny does not have the discipline as her stage counterpart so they would still squabble.

With Jelly(s), there is so much of a disconnect character wise that it simply would not even be remotely plausible. The only thing that connects them is their name. Otherwise, they really are two separate characters that would have absolutely nothing in common if they were to meet, whether they are aware the other is them or not.

If you think I missed the mark on any of these anon, I do welcome you letting me know what you had in mind.

#sorry anon it did end up being a lot of no as an answer to your question #too much separation as to be expected and the personalities just would not really work out well #though Rumple and Rumple would be in absolute cahoots with the other and the sex would be frequent in my opinion #they would have some fun #anyone else not really #good ask though #lots to think about and mull over #keep these coming if you would like

[celestialmechanic]

Human life is too short and too front-loaded. Not only do people live in misery, they imagine that misery is all that's left, that we have reached the pinnacle of possibility and that this, the so-called human condition, is the ride. Pain, loss, the impermanence of all togetherness, no matter how hard-won, and the pointless eternity of any absence that stumbles, by sheer accident, into our lives.

My transhumanism, the transhumanism I fight for, says no. No to the eternal stillness, no to the wisdom of death, no to the acceptance of all that already is, as though that is the height of knowledge and peace. As though this one moment in all of history is the pinnacle, the exemplar, of what is even possible for someone to be. My transhumanism says, no, you underestimate possibility. You underestimate this universe, if you think that this, this snarl and pain and trauma, is the eternal and just ending of our story, that the whole thing will recreate a moment precisely like now, on loop until the stars burn out.

I am small. I am powerless. I do not hold the controls for all the fundamental constants at my fingertips, I cannot make gravity stronger or weaker with the touch of a button, I do not have the sword that slays gods. Does my powerlessness mean I must bow to what was already here? Does my inability, at present, to erase everything and rebuild it as I want in one motion, mean I must accept the present into eternity? I will not bow to this. It is here, but it is not right. It is merely might. No matter how powerful the misery, I will not say it is acceptable.

Call me immature. Call me low-brow, say I have insufficient understanding, tell me that if I were to climb to the pinnacle of wisdom, I would see that the whole of the world is in balance here and now as it is. I will not be swayed. No psychological motion to bring me into harmony with stasis would make that stasis good. If I am the nail that sticks out, hammering me down does not restore some sort of universal truth.

I have been afraid, up until now, that my refusal of death, of the natural in every form it takes, no matter how it hurts me and everyone around me, was insufficiently wise. I have been silent, and hidden myself. I thought, perhaps I should shut up and climb, until I reach that peak of true understanding that all is already right, precisely and uniquely where it is. If it has any truth to it at all, it will be that this position in spacetime was necessary to construct something more, something less hurtful, something that allows us room to be away from it.

It is not out of some individualism or desire to see the world of animals and plants in ruin. It is simply that I don't want to be abused by coincidence. I do not believe that everything was correct as it already appeared. I do not want to hold still, in a world that was already arranged just so. I want to move. I want to change.

I want to love experiences that go beyond the meager single body I was provided. If that is wrong, if that is low on the pyramid, then I am low on the pyramid. I am immature. I am irrelevant and my opinions don't matter. Surely, I must imagine, I must assume, that things are one way but actually they are some other, more fundamentally tragic way, and this holds into eternity.

And if that is so, has the computation not already completed? Is the answer not already known? Surely we can skip straight to the inevitable conclusion. If every path has the same end, we can just skip to the end. The details don't matter. They'll all be gone, forgotten, soon enough. Will it still be the journey that counts, when nothing in the entire universe remembers that the journey even happened? Is it still the journey that counts, when the journey is just a series of cliche human tragedies?

Which details have not been repeated until the meaning has been stripped from the story, like a monoculture strips the nutrients from the soil? What deep profundity does this case of cancer contain that every other has lacked, such that it must be said yet again? Which new and essential understanding is provoked by the billionth set of lungs filling with fluid?

It doesn't contain meaning. It doesn't contain meaning, which means it doesn't contain anything worth wisely accepting. It's just an abusive circumstance. Death is just an abusive circumstance, and one day we will look back on it—like the abusive circumstances we have escaped, and been thankful for our escape, that it does not continue endlessly even now—and we will heal from all that it took from us.

If you force the fixity of the future on me, I will bite you.

#long post #writing

[yanderetrash]

I kept thinking about what the soul is in the context of the relic and i went back to soma every single time. A coin toss, one will be left behind and another will continue, identical but fundamentally not the same. So you won the toss once when getting dragged out of the landfill but to be honest i think V died for real then. I mean sure it was only a second but do you really need to die for long to be dead?

It doesnt really change much but it makes things sadder for me, two ghosts puppeteering a corpse

I truly wonder how shes going to cope being all alone in her head. Maybe she still talks to him, a lot. Maybe she hallucinates him from time to time, especially towards the end. Like losing a limb

Rogue flat out telling her shes radioactive really did it for me, of course rogue would be the one to say it out loud though lets be real the part wasnt quiet at all. And it absolutely makes sense, every time shes involving people in her shit someone gets killed (though a bit hypocritical for rogue to still go ahead and die for johnny anyway later should the stars align)

And like ok obviously she cant be the only one this happens to like, objectively merc work is dangerous shit but the fucking PR would be a nightmare after all it was an internationally recognised stunt they pulled

And its unfair because see shes a stranger at best tolerated and at worst outright hated but if it was Jackie who came out of it alive he would have mourned her for a bit and everyone else would have completely forgotten her. Like hes got a family, a community, a significant other. So much to live for. Of course its the fucking vagabond that gets to keep on living. No way theres no resentment from mama welles, from misty, from everyone who knew them both, even subconsciously

So ill give it to you the sex would be legendary. I mean you dont have a headmate for so long he doesnt learn a few tricks about you and vice versa, but i cannot imagine a world in which their relationship would be romantic. Maybe friends with benefits or maybe occasional hatefucking to release the tension of this doomed world but i dont think their relationship would change to a romantic path. Like you cant really define them as friends because it's definitely more than that, but romance is out of the question

Well why, because in my opinion its a bit limiting, a bit shortsighted, a bit too normal for what happened

I think no one would understand and would in turn alienate them but its kind of on par with what were working with

#cp77 thoughtposting #long post #probably

[course111]

An important Everyday life Brimming with Changes : But only if People think

An important everyday life in changes is known as a everyday life pleased. To trust in that person is without a doubt you need to on the way to any specific expectancy to a magical encountering that you witnessed and my.

Magic is known as a great situation which will just a divine form will be able to yield capability to deliver, straightaway and using a guy, issues, and even occurrences. You find it difficult to yield much of our changes, though you can easily obviously phone call them all "miracles" in cases where a product utterly odd appears individuals world.

Saintly citizens are to be able to do changes even while some people live life ones own world, including as they contain died. A few appropriate and even modern ideas can a course in miracles be Related The mother Teresa in Calcutta and even Pope Kim Robert II. Many of us know about a lot of these illustrious consumers.

Achieve many of us have confidence on changes? Certainly a number of achieve, though my estimation is without a doubt we just who procedure religious beliefs, and are faith based, might found that requires in thinking on changes. As i browse now that inside everyday life it just saying, "If it's not necessary to have confidence on Who, then simply, just how do you imagine magic that you witnessed? inches

I guess that in case you have been a powerful Atheist and a powerful Agnostic, it is troublesome to help you encourage one which will changes achieve finally many people. May possibly a few superior acquaintances: you really fails to have confidence on Who, additionally, the several other queries which will Who possibly even is actually, though renders which will preference opened (whatever which will means).

Just how do you comprehend in cases where a magical contains came about that you witnessed? So are one right now seeking out magic for one exact good reason?

Most definitely i'll deliver perfect resolutions to help you the requests, and even with a little luck you will come across a powerful method these using a distinctive opinion. May possibly professional changes inside everyday life, and even in this particular in many others, and even As i reached the exact same judgment on every occasion: There's no doubt that the pair were changes!

Many are stuff you want to comprehend earlier around changes:

: Magic may appear in under a an important wink, and unfortunately your everyday life may just be able to escape to find a later date. Extra fat time period to somewhat of a magical, today rather than there may be a time period with the Market.

: End up highly exact in regards to what simply it will be that you require that you witnessed to take place and on a different person: certainly a spouse as well as a good friend. For illustration, considering prompting for one magical in medicinal, relieving, solution, treatment as a result of a powerful obsession, and designed for some other main objective?

: An important request magic to evolve a friend or relative highly in your area as a result of harmful to help you decent, even while that individual is without a doubt thrilled and even subject matter to be harmful, including unpredictable on the way to one and other wines, is known as a very difficult way taking; thinking that stems from go through through 5 nephews just who gotten related to pills, and even ones own straighteners is hopeless.

: Many allowed and even worth getting a magical which sometimes obviously keep much of our world on a external infiltration utilizing a person's, including a powerful pet dog; or else to get better as a result of distinct fundamental issues which includes: a terrible injury, incurable cancer tumor, core infiltration, an important caress, overdose in pills, and several other significant and even huge occurrences.

: Wish for one magical through absolute assurance and even truthfulness--if magic is strictly you have to immediately turn stuff available. It get is completely around one and even Who, as it is without a doubt His particular option in which to stay look around.

: Imagine that magic may well arise for everyone and even your dependents. Should you choose to assume, then simply please require!

: Show patience and even wish because of the procedure of suffering with magic. Changes you should not powered by an important timer, additionally they achieve arise as you a minimum of imagine them all.

[lostcauses-noregrets]

Hi lost ! I'm pretty new to Eruri fandome ( also AOT and anime in general ) but I can't help but notice : so many eruri fanfics , fanarts and fanwork in general are just so freaking sad ? This isn't complain honestly because I love them ( sad eruri fanfics are my favourite fanfics ) I'm just kinda really surprised by it because I've been in plenty of fandomes where part of the ship died , but people would mostly write "fix it" fics and alternative ( happy ) endings instead of sad ones . I've seen some alternative / "happy" ending ones but those are pretty rare compared to the rest . So that has me wondering ... Is it because both Levi and Erwin got actually satisfying endings so fans didn't see anything there to fix ? Or Erwin's death just completely crush all our souls ?

Hey Anon, welcome to the Eruri fandom! I hope you’re enjoying all the achingly beautiful fics and art we’ve been spoiled with over the years.  

There’s a long standing joke in the fandom that Eruris only have two modes; sad and horny, and tbh there’s some truth in that.  There are hundreds of fabulous AUs with happy endings and plenty of excellent canonverse fixit fics too, but there’s no denying that Eruris do love their angst.  There are a few different reasons for that I think.  One is that Erwin and Levi’s sacrifice is very much bound up with their characters and their relationship with each other.  Erwin sacrifices his life for humanity and Levi loses everyone he ever loved fighting for the same cause.  Removing that sacrifice, diminishing that loss, does subtly change who Erwin and Levi I think.  

Some fans (me included) also view Levi’s decision to let Erwin die in peace, relieved of his burden, with his dream intact, as the ultimate expression of love.  It’s the one time in Levi’s life where his decision is swayed by his own personal feelings, rather than the good of humanity.  That in itself speaks volumes.   It’s such a heartbreaking moment and it’s so fundamental to who Levi is.  

I think you’re also right that, in the grand scheme of things, Erwin and Levi did both get really satisfying endings. Much more so than many of the other characters.  I know a lot of writers (me included again lol) love exploring the tragedy of Erwin’s death and Levi’s grief and loyalty. I mean a character that pursues his vow to his dead lover commander for four years after his death is cat nip for writers with a penchant for angst.   

I answered an ask a week or so ago about how different tropes have risen in popularity at different stages over the lifetime of the fandom, that's sort of related to your question.  Before Midnight Sun, there were a lot of canonverse fics imagining Erwin and Levi’s life after the war once the Titans had been defeated (e.g. Coup de Grace by @cherryamber) After Midnight Sun, there was an outpouring of grief, with many writers and artists attempting to process deeply conflicting feelings about Levi’s decision and Erwin’s death.  Some writers turned to happier AUs to seek solace, others left the fandom all together. For a long time after Midnight Sun, it was vanishingly rare to find anyone writing postwar canonverse fic.  Once the series ended more canonverse fics started reappearing focused on Levi’s life after the war.  (I wrote one called The Permanence of the Young Men.) More recently there’s been a vogue for Marley Erwin fics, while other writers have come up with all kinds of creative ways for Erwin to survive Shiganshina and reappear later in the time line.  In These Fallen Leaves  by @masksarehot2 is a great example of this. 

These are just my opinions of course, and I suspect if you asked this question of other writers you’d get some very different responses. It’s an interesting question though, so thanks for your ask!

#asks #eruri #erwin smith #levi ackerman #eruri relationship #fic rec #snk

[bigskydreaming]

I’m a big believer that Dick’s independence and self-reliance isn’t in any way rooted in him just being stubborn, prideful or self-destructive. I view it as being in his eyes a necessity….because on a deep, fundamental level….Dick doesn’t trust anything to be permanent. 

I’ll always go back to the fact that his character archetype isn’t that of the everyman, because he was of lower class origins compared to Bruce’s extreme upper class background.....but rather that given that Dick Grayson was allegedly exceptional from his debut, a child prodigy capable of feats of acrobatics few in the world could match....he could never actually be classified as an everyman. Rather, his core archetype is that of the fish out of water. The individual taken from the comforts of his original pond and thrust into a limelight of an entirely different nature from the one he grew up in, with the two not at all being interchangeable, and necessitating he change and adapt in dramatic and often unanticipated ways just to keep his footing in his new environs.

Its not incidental that his initial tragedy wasn’t JUST the loss of his parents, but rather the loss of his old routines, extended family, environment, way of life, expectations for the way his future would play out....it ALL vanished on the same night, never to return again. The loss of his parents was tragedy enough all on its own, but its really only one part of what Dick lost that night. He lost his entire footing. His frames of reference. Everything his life had previously prepared him for and everything he could have used as a familiar comfort or source of stability to lean on, if it had been ‘just’ his parents that he lost.

And I fundamentally don’t believe you ever get over THAT loss, no matter what peace you make with the loss of your loved ones or specific elements of that. Once you’ve experienced a shake-up of that size, once you have a bone-deep, visceral awareness of how completely your life can change in the blink of an eye, how you can effectively be set back to zero as though nothing you’ve previously accomplished matters (remember, he went from a kid whose name drew crowds on its OWN merits, based on what HE was capable of due to his own work and skills, the youngest of the Flying Graysons, capable of an acrobatic feat barely anyone else in the world could master......to being a kid who was only ever identified as in the context of Bruce Wayne having taken him in, as though his existence and worth were defined by someone else’s act of compassion rather than based on anything he’d ever done on his own, when the fact of the matter is even by age eight, he’d already accomplished a LOT)....

Like, the point is, you can’t go through a shake-up like that and ever fully FORGET how complete and total a change it was, how big a rewrite of your entire life story. 

That’s a trauma all its own, one that goes largely unacknowledged, and one that I don’t think Bruce and Alfred or anyone else fully realized was even there TO need addressing in the first place. So of course how could they ever fully address it, without realizing a need?

And I think Dick’s constant moves and self-reliance are actually born of that primal awareness that there are no guarantees, that nothing is truly permanent, that anything can be taken away in an instant.

He’s always waiting for the other shoe to drop, for everything to be taken away again - as people have pointed out in other posts, Dick can never seem to have nice things. Even the apartment building he lived in while in Bludhaven….that wasn’t some height of luxury by ANY stretch of the imagination…was lost to him, along with all the friends and neighbors and community he’d built among them, something evidenced by how highly they all spoke of him, even to a total stranger. And that’s not even getting into how even the CITY he sought to establish himself as a guardian over, like, he lost the city itself. The CITY!

Dick, I believe, insists on holding down 9-5 jobs and paying his own way and only touching money that comes from Bruce originally, when like…he has no other option or its to help someone else….just like he’s resistant to ever fully putting down roots, at least none so deep that he can’t uproot himself and quickly relocate without ripping off a piece of himself and leaving it still buried in the ground behind him. 

Because deep down, he’s always bracing for the next seismic event that’ll rip everything away from him, and he wants to be prepared. He WANTS to make sure he never takes anything for granted. That if he loses it all - hell, if he and Bruce fight again and Bruce decides once and for all to take it all away from Dick, cut their ties, something that would very much be a deep-rooted insecurity for a kid with as massive of abandonment issues as Dick must have given his childhood and a number of events after that…

Dick I think needs to trust that he’ll be capable of surviving, of standing on his own two feet, if the worst should ever happen again and he’s left on his own again. His self-reliance and obsessive need for independence aren’t a REJECTION of anyone else or anything Bruce or others have ever done for him.

They’re simply the defense mechanisms of a boy who was once upon a time torn away from everything he knew and in certain origins was then on top of that plunged into hellish circumstances before finding a refuge with Bruce….

And the man that boy grew up to be, who is determined to never be caught in a situation like that again, where his very survival might otherwise require the kindness of a stranger….with Dick knowing better than to count on lightning striking twice there, and him getting lucky a second time.

So in a lot of ways, my core perception of Dick having spent more time growing up in the luxury of Wayne Manor than any of the other kids is that its largely irrelevant to who he grew up to be. Because he was still more than old enough by the time he arrived that he had formative experiences all his own that no amount of time was sufficient to overwrite and exchange for new ones.

His experiences are so extreme in terms of the loss of all forms of stability, that the SHAPE that stability takes in the periods where his life IS stable, is largely unimportant. Because its the absence of stability that’s the defining recurrence in his life. Even the stability offered by his childhood in Wayne Manor eventually gave way to canon where he left the Manor before he was even eighteen, as well as canon where no matter how it was ultimately reversed, he was for a time affected by having the ability to call the Manor his home STRIPPED AWAY FROM HIM. Thus even when Bruce did ultimately welcome him back, there still retained an awareness that even the fact that this had happened in the first place was a reminder that even THIS was something Dick could lose, that no matter how stable his childhood there had been at times, it couldn’t in and of itself be COUNTED as a source of stability due to the simple fact that his ability to call it his home HADN’T turned out to be an irrevocable constant. 

And so this is another of those areas where I think its fundamentally an oversight to have members of the family commenting on Dick’s self-reliance or tendencies to relocate himself, let alone in any kind of critical capacity......

If there’s not going to be an acknowledgment within the family or by the people raising these criticisms like, what kind of a role the family themselves have played in Dick feeling a NEED to have these tendencies in the first place.

If someone doesn’t trust in any place he lives in to ever truly be a constant in his life, truly permanent, that anything can be taken away in the right circumstances....and you yourself have done something that has made him feel or given him reason TO leave a place he’s found stability in at some point in the past....you kiiiiiinda forsake your right to be critical of his inability to see any place as permanent or constant, y’know?

Like, insert Miranda Whatshername gif or Meryl Streep peering down her glasses and going oh I see, you think this has nothing to do with you.

So I’d argue that Dick’s insistence on simulating the average person’s reality of livelihood, even when he has other means and funds available to him….just as his insistence on being as solely responsible for the well-being of the place or people he sees as his responsibilities, being single-minded about relying only on himself for tasks that he sees as ultimately having nothing to do with someone other than himself, etc....

All that is in my opinion BECAUSE he’s so firmly attached to the reality that anything and everything can be taken away, at ANY given moment. That he can be reduced to having nothing and no one he can depend on BEYOND just his own innate skills and experiences, the only things he trusts to be truly unable to be stripped from him by others.

If you ask me, one of the core aspects of Dick’s characterization throughout his adulthood in canon is SPECIFICALLY his fear that everything he cares about, or trusts, or relies on…can be taken away from him or lost. 

And his determination to make sure that he’ll be able to survive even if that should ever happen again.

[astrologyandlife]

jupiter and saturn together in the natal chart

i have noticed that, in many of my readings, people have both jupiter and saturn sitting in the same house of their natal chart. this makes sense because a conjunction between the two occurs every 20 years. and to me, this signals an important theme: the need to overcome struggle to unlock the opportunities of that house.

first house - there's difficulty expressing yourself fully. it's like you want to be optimistic and have faith in yourself, but something is holding you back from that. you are almost afraid of being let down. as a result, you carry around this fear and caution about everything. you doubt yourself. when people first meet you, these struggles can be visible to them. the important thing here is that you are the cultivator of your experience, and when you can work through your feelings about yourself and your environment, you will notice that you attract good luck and opportunity. you have the power to consciously change how you approach the world around you through a smile, a little bit of faith, and a more positive attitude. second house - growing up, you lacked some form of security in your life. this could have been in the form of coming from a poorer background, or having a parent(s) that did not consistently care for you in some way. and because you were not valued by those in your early environment, you struggle to ascribe value to yourself. you may develop habits of holding onto things out of fear that you will never have them again. the lesson from this placement is to understand your own worth, and to know that you are entitled to a comfortable, happy, satisfying life. using this framework you will attract wealth and opportunity. third house - the hardest part about this placement is that you feel as though you are somehow "stupid" or your ideas aren't worthwhile. you could have struggled in your early school years for various reasons ranging from not understanding the material to being in an environment that refused to accommodate your needs. you rarely share your own ideas, and you fear being rejected, wrong, or made fun of by others. you must let go of this hesitation and remind yourself that you have valuable ideas to share with the world. you have the power to persuade, to motivate, and to invigorate. in fact, once you stop second-guessing yourself, you will notice that your genius shines proudly. fourth house - your early childhood experiences were, and still are, challenging for you. you could have experienced hardship as a result of being treated poorly by your parents or even going through some trauma in the home, especially if saturn makes aspects to mars or pluto. you have fears stemming from your childhood that hold you back. what is going to be important for you is building a home for yourself that is safe, secure, and stable. in doing so, your chosen family will grow and provide you with the support you need to flourish. fifth house - you have artistic and creative talents, but it is possible that when you were younger, you received heavy messaging that these talents were in some way invaluable or unimportant. As a result, relaxation and self-expression on a creative level is severely restricted. you feel like you always have to justify the things you love. however, you are allowed to simply exist and enjoy things for their sake. once you allow yourself to be creative to the extent you are capable, you will find that it will bring opportunity and happiness to you. sixth house - i definitely get the sense that you have had to be responsible from a very young age, taking care of the chores around the house, watching over yourself, etc. perhaps your parents were particularly strict with you and imposed a lot of restrictions on your daily life. these lessons instilled within you have lead you to desire routine and organization, because you fear chaos. you also tend to put too much on yourself, leading to burnout and extreme stress. here you must unlearn any negative habits or routines you have created for yourself, including overworking yourself. in doing so, you will feel much more calm and collected, which will help you physically and mentally. seventh house - there is a lot of stress and anxiety that comes from long-term relationships. the biggest fear here is the fear that you will never find someone who can fully love and commit to you. though you have a lot to offer, you feel completely

inexperienced or as though you are nothing special. there can be a tendency to downplay your own gifts and strengths. as a result, you feel very lonely in your early life and may be distrustful of love. you are afraid of opening yourself up to rejection and pain, so you avoid forming strong attachments or giving too much of yourself. having faith in yourself and what you have to offer, as well as being confident, will attract people who have an abundance of love and affection to give to you. eighth house - this placement can be heavily indicative of one or more life-changing, traumatic experiences, namely when pluto is involved. this experience has transformed you in some major way, likely inducing a fear of change or the unknown within you. you hold on to these memories and this pain in your heart, which stunts your growth as a person. the second half of the healing must be a conscious act by you, wherein you decide that you have what it takes to continue surviving. there is definitely a need for complete rebirth here. once you have come out on the other side, the magic of life itself will be revealed to yourself. you will become resilient in ways you could never imagine, and you will have the strength to overcome anything. ninth house - i have the feeling that your early life was extremely narrow and did not allow you to explore the world around you properly. perhaps your parents were extremely overprotective of you, or overbearing in sharing their opinions with you, and this was a very suffocating feeling. your own opinions and ideas were not welcome by the people in your life, and often they were even shut down. so you must start anew with your independence. remain open and take time to immerse yourself in anything you can, especially ideas radically different from your own. by opening your mind, jupiter will reward you with a wealth of knowledge and experience from which you can draw. tenth house - early on in your life, ideas of what it means to be successful, accomplished, and a productive member of society were heavily pushed on you by the people in your life. you almost feel as though you aren't meant to have agency in your own future, because you are trying to do what you are "supposed" to do. your parents could have been a bit overbearing in trying to prepare you for the future. trusting yourself and forming your own ideas of success and fulfillment will lead to you experiencing much more opportunity within your career. you must overcome a fear of failure here. eleventh house - on a deep level, you feel completely alone in the world. you feel as though it is impossible for anyone to truly understand you, or that they would even want to try. you are a deeply lonely person at times. i could see this placement as indicating that you were a social outcast or somehow distanced from others in your youth, leading to you believing there is something fundamentally wrong with you that prevents you from forming meaningful relationships. you doubt yourself, thinking, am i boring? am i too plain? am i unlikeable? here, you must cast these thoughts away and put forth effort anyways. twelfth house - the biggest struggle with this is that you feel unable to let go of the past and to forgive yourself. the biggest obstacle here is yourself. you have these feelings like you have done too much bad, or something you have done in the past is irredeemable. you may find that, in times of particular stress, you have nightmares or trouble sleeping. the twelfth house challenges you to let go of all of these things, to forgive yourself. you have to look at your pain and grief and allow yourself to feel it, then to let it go. in some way, you have to completely allow yourself to dissolve. after you do these things, you will find that your life as a whole improves, and you can handle anything much better.

some notes as well:

the closer to conjunction the two are, the more intensely this is felt by the native

if they aspect the sun, moon, or angles, these lessons will come up in the individual's day-to-day life

if jupiter is closer to the beginning of the house, it can lessen the impact of saturn

#astrology #saturn #jupiter #first house #second house #third house #fourth house #fifth house #sixth house #seventh house #eighth house #ninth house #tenth house #eleventh house #twelfth house

[linkspooky]

Eren’s Dissocation

This month’s chapter has a lot of people confused on Eren’s actions. Why would Eren choose the worst option possible? Why force himself to do something he clearly doesn’t want to do? Why, when he’s given options to back out, does he instead double down on the bad decision making? Why, when no one is holding a gun to his head does he pick the worst available choice? 

The narrative obviously isn’t sympathizing with Eren so we’re meant to question his choices. So let’s get into Eren’s headspace. A place where clearly even Eren doesn’t want to be.

1. Other People

Eren displays a lot of paradoxes in his reasoning this chapter. His every action is a contradiction. He goes out of his way to save a child, and then crushes them later without lifting a finger to help. He says he wants to do this all for the sake of freedom, and yet he’s espousing ideas like a fixed future, and acting helpless to his eventual fate. Eren begs and cries for the child to forgive him for what he must do... when nobody is actually forcing him to do anything. 

It’s not only that Eren makes bad choices, but he also acts like he’s the victim of his own bad choices. He acts like he’s completely helpless to do these things. Eren says one thing, and then deliberately does another to contradict it when he DOES NOT HAVE TO. It seems like Eren is going out of his way to ruin everything and people are questioning what pushed Eren to this point of deliberate self destruction and acting like he was all out of options when he very, clearly wasn’t. 

Eren’s motivations make no sense.  Yeah.  They make no sense because Eren is trying to reconcile two irreconcilable ideas. The ideas of predestination and freedom are complete and total opposites ideas that cannot coexist in Eren’s mind. Eren can’t reconcile them. So he doesn’t.  Rather than try to justify himself or struggle to find the right answer Eren settles for the wrong one. Rather than try to justify his actions Eren avoids any confrontation of his actions all together. Eren distances himself - from his actions, the consequences of his actions, and his role in everything that happens.

It’s a simple idea, but also a complicated one which I will do my best to explain. How does Eren do this? How does Eren end up in this very contradictory mindset, where he just keeps making things worse, on purpose. And it starts with the way Eren sees other people. 

There’s a reason that Eren is made out to be so childlike and petty in this chapter. It’s because he is. This line is very vague, but if I were to explain it I would say. 

Eren is very bothered by the fact that other people exist. 

What I mean is, other people have thoughts, feelings, and entirely different opinions from Eren and Eren doesn’t really want to deal with that. While yes, it could be a line about how Eren saw the same oppression outside the walls as he did in Paradis, I think it’s a lot pettier than that. Eren got really, really, bothered by the fact that the world he imagined as empty was in fact crowded with other people besides him. 

In child developmental psychology there’s an experiment called the “Three Mountain Problem.” In the experiment a child is shown a model of a mountain from one perspective and asked to draw what it looks like. They’re asked to draw what they see.Then, a doll is placed behind the mountain looking at it from a completely different angle. The experimenter then asks the child to draw what the doll sees. The doll would see something completely different - but the child doesn’t comprehend that. They draw the exact same picture the first time. Children lack the ability to imagine that other people don’t. A child only sees the world from one point of view. 

You know what’s really frustrating? Arguing with other people. Sometimes even if you know you’re right, even if you state your argument perfectly and show the facts that person still won’t agree with you. It’s frustrating to deal with the fact that you can influence, but you can’t really control the opinions of others. 

Eren is fundamentally, unable to see, and deal with other people as people. By that I mean, their perspectives, their feelings, he can’t really see or understand those things outside of his own perspective. Other people ask things of him, require things of him, that he can’t give. Other people disagree with him, fight with him. 

Eren’s not an eco-terrorist.  He’s not bothered by the fact the world isn’t a natural paradise outside the walls. It’s the people themselves, that Eren finds disappointing. 

Eren can’t deal. On a micro-level. Let’s forget about the plot at large and just focus on Eren for a second. Who are the people that Eren has chosen to surround himself post-timeskip.

If Eren’s ultimate ideal is freedom why does he choose to trust Floche of all people? A sycophant, and someone who is practically begging to have all of his choices taken away from him? 

It’s also because Floch is also someone who won’t disagree with him, or question him the way his friends might. Eren just can’t deal. 

Eren claims that everything he does is out of love for his friends. He fights for his friends, sacrifices for his friends. He has to be the one to die so his friends can live. 

But, when Eren hears that Mikasa has the exact same motivation for him. That Mikasa wants to protect him, and fight for him the same way he wants to fight for her. When Eren hears that Mikasa might love him and show that love by always fighting for him, which is the exact same way Eren tends to show his love for his friends he doesn’t... get it. He can’t accept her feelings in any real way. He can’t even really understand them.

Eren wants to love Mikasa, he wants to love his friends, but he either can’t accept their feelings, or he just doesn’t want to. He’s allowed to love Mikasa, Mikasa can’t possibly love him back. Even when Zeke just straight up tells him to his face, Eren dismisses Zeke and says what Mikasa feels for him doesn’t even matter because he’s going to die in four years. Eren avoids her feelings, otherwise. 

That’s the key word here. Eren’s avoidant. In every single person he deals with, he’s avoidant. That’s how his very contradictory views of people are maintained. There’s a lot of examples I could list of this. Eren wants his friends to be free, but he goes out of his way to lock them up. Eren says he’s doing this for the sake of his friend’s happiness, and then antagonizes them as cruelly as possible. The reason he’s able to do these things, is that he avoids truly looking, or confronting his actions, and also the people he’s surrounded with in any real way.

Not only with Mikasa, you can see it in his interaction with Historia. 

Eren and Historia grew close because Eren said he wanted to get to know the real Historia. But, then he specifically asks Historia to do something that is the opposite of everything she stands for. When she disagrees with him, because she wants to live as an individual with her head held high with pride and make her own choices, do what she thinks is right as Ymir told her. When Historia tries to assert herself as an individual who doesn’t completely agree with him, Eren then switches tactics and tries to browbeat her into doing what he wants of her. 

Eren’s view of the world is very isolated, and insulated from others. Whenever somebody challenges his view, he makes the choice to retreat back inside of his own head rather than try to change. 

That’s also a natural consequence of Eren not seeing people as people. Because he avoids the thoughts, feelings, opinions of others it means his own thoughts never really change. He deprives himself of the ability to see things in a different way. Eren is stuck in a rut, but also Eren doesn’t want to leave that rut he wants to bunker down. 

2. Eren Himself. 

Eren’s head what a terrifying place to be inside. 

Dissociation is a mental process that causes a lack of connection in a person's thoughts, memory and sense of identity. Dissociation seems to fall on a continuum of severity.

Dissociation is a defense mechanism of the brain. So is avoidance. They are both learned defense mechanisms that the brain uses to protect himself, and they are also behaviors that people fall into to protect themselves. 

This is why Eren is depicted as a child over and over again. This is why Eren is shown constantly flashing back to his mother’s death. It’s because Eren never really got over that initial trauma, Eren has been stunted and never grew or developed from that point. 

Eren’s a big old manchild, and that makes sense just from what he’s been through. It’s easy to forget that Eren is a child soldier who like, never had a stable environment after losing his home. The reason he hyper focuses on his mother, and that initial incident is because that was the start of everything all the insecurity of his life. Eren adopted all these mechanisms to cope in a situation where he was truly helpless, and yet even after the situation changed, Eren’s internal mechanisms never truly did change and he kept on coping in the same broken way. 

Dissociation, and Avoidance. 

Dissociation is when a person divorces themselves, from their actions, from their own body, from their thoughts and feelings. 

Avoidance is when Eren deliberately goes out of his way to avoid any kind of real conflict with other people or having to deal with their feelings because he’s not equipped to handle them. 

Eren is hopelessly stuck inside of his own head right now. I don’t know what’s a better metaphor for that, then Eren literally... just being a head. It almost lapses into solipism. Eren has distanced himself from other people so far that he has... literally become a brain in a jar. 

Eren’s perspective is the only one that exists to him. But he also disagrees with himself. 

Eren wants the freedom to do whatever he wants. But he also, doesn’t really want to be doing what he’s doing right now. So, why does he use his freedom to do these things?

If Eren distances himself, both from the thoughts and feelings of other people, but also his own thoughts and feelings, where is he? 

He’s god.

Eren imagines his ideal world as one where he’s above the clouds, in an completely open sky. These are the symbols associated with the idea of god in most religions. Somewhere distant. Somewhere far away. 

Eren’s key operating word is distance. He is distancing himself from both other people, and his own actions at the same time, because he can’t really bear or even process the guilt of dealing with both. 

Let me explain Eren’s bad decision making with a simple metaphor.

So spiderman, right. Spiderman gets bitten by a radioactive spider. He has kind of a shitty life. He has no parents, he’s bullied in high school. He’s an average every day loser. Suddenly, he gets all of these super powers. It makes spider man feel special. He has super strength now, he doesn’t need to wear his glasses anymore. 

Then a robber runs by him, and Spiderman doesn’t lift a finger to help. Even though he has the special ability to help, he doesn’t take any responsibility for it. 

As a result of this choice, his Uncle Ben dies. 

Spiderman wanted the super powers, but he didn’t want like any of the added responsibilities of having super powers. In essence until Uncle Ben died, what Spider Man was living out was a power fantasy.

That’s what Eren is in the middle of. He’s always been this very weak and helpless child. He’s always felt like the person who just watched, unable to do anything when his mother died right in front of him. The way he’s dealt with that has always been imagining himself as getting stronger, and stronger, and stronger. 

Eren wants power, but he doesn’t want responsibility. 

The Sasha scene is literally the Uncle Ben scene. Eren kills a lot of innocent people, he makes a choice to do that, and as a direct result of his actions, someone else important to him dies. It’s a direct story consequence. Eren steps on Gabi’s friends -> Gabi becomes vengeful -> Gabi goes the extra mile to avenge the deaths of her friends sneaks on board and shoots Sasha. 

Eren’s mechanism however, is avoidance. He doesn’t want to be at fault. So he’s not. Which means when Eren makes bad decisions. When those bad decisions result in things getting wrose. Eren ignores the consequences of his actions, and is therefore unable to deal with those consequences in any real way. 

That’s why we see Eren get worse, and worse, and worse, and worse. Because he’s not learning from any of the choices he is making. Because from Eren’s perspective he doesn’t have a choice. 

To summarize the contradiction:  Eren wants to kill people, but he doesn’t want to feel like a murderer. 

Eren can’t make sense of that, because there is no making sense of that so he looks away. He looks away so he can’t learn, or even really see what he’s doing to people. This causes Eren to spiral. When people have gotten genuinely that bad, when people spiral to the point where it seems like every single thing they’re going to do is going to make things worse what do they start wanting?

Eren’s dream of killing all the titans, is paralleled exactly with Reiner’s urge to just, kill himself so he can be done with everything. That’s the real reason essentially. Yes, it’s extreme, but Eren might be y’know, an extremist? The micro-level informs the macro-level. 

Eren has gotten so bad in his mental spiral he’s reached the point where nothing else matters, where he just wants to give up and committ suicide. He wants to make the world disappear. He can no longer deal with the struggle against the world. He sees the only way to escape his problems is to either just wipe everything away, and wipe himself out. That’s metaphorical suicide. 

It’s just Eren’s always projected outward. 

Rather than deal with his own internal flaws, he tries to change the world around him. Eren has just externalized his own internal conflict to such an extreme extent. 

And yeah, Eren is literally just a head right now. Only his own internal conflict, only his own hurt feelings, matter. That’s what Eren does to the child. 

The reason that Eren draws the comparison to Eren is because that’s what Reiner did exactly to him. 

Eren is the hurt and injured party here. Reiner’s direction actions and choices killed Eren’s mom. However, it’s not about Eren’s feelings, Reiner makes it entirely about his own feelings. His own guilt. His own regret for what he did. How bad he feels about it. Reiner breaks down crying and is so self-involved he forgets that Eren is the one who is hurting here. 

Eren repeats the same action. He breaks down crying in front of a child and apologizes again and again. But it’s really about Eren. Eren makes it about himself, and his own guilt and remorse rather than the person he’s wronging. 

So yeah. It’s the end of the world and Eren’s just making it about himself. That’s the best way to explain it. It’s easy to kill another person if you don’t see, or truly care about their pain. 

Eren is a tool. And by that I mean he wants to take certain actions. Eren is violent, and wants to stir up conflict. He is because he’s a child soldier who has been raised that way all his life. Eren also knows that these things are wrong. Which is why he wants to take these actions, but in no way feel responsible for them. A gun is not responsible for a bullet leaving the barrel and shooting someone. Eren wants to be the gun, rather than the person holding the trigger.

Which is why Eren is now inside of a giant flesh monster that’s bent on destroying everything. He is the mechanism that destroys the world. It’s the extreme result of that line of thinking. But once again Eren’s entire character can be summarized in one line.

“Eren Jaeger is an extremist.” 

#aot 131 #snk 131 #snk 131 spoilers #aot 131 spoilers #attack on titan meta #eren jaeger #eren jaeger meta #eren jaeger theory #shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan #aot meta